Garrett Wilson knows the situation Ohio State is in.

As the Buckeyes remain in Columbus during conference championship weekend for the first time since 2016, he knows where they stand.

“Honestly, between the team and my friends on the team, our mindset is that we’re not playing in the Playoff,” Wilson said on the Rothman and Ice radio show on 97.1 The Fan Friday. “We lost this game against The Team Up North last week, which still hurts as much as it does.

“Our mindset was that we’re probably not going to be playing in the Playoff, and if something comes back to where we are playing in the Playoff, we’ll take that as it is and get back to work and get ready to play. As of right now, our mindset is that we’re probably looking at the Rose Bowl or the Peach Bowl or something like that.”

Heading into Saturday, the Rose Bowl seems like the most legitimate option for the Buckeyes.

Unless Michigan loses to Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Saturday night, Ohio State is locked in as the second-ranked Big Ten team and will take on Utah, which beat Oregon Friday night in the Pac-12 Championship, securing a spot in the Rose Bowl.

It’s an atmosphere Ohio State has known before, playing in Pasadena, Calif, on New Year’s Day more than any other bowl game in school history, posting a record of 8-7 with the most recent being a 28-23 win against Washington in 2019, head coach Urban Meyer’s last game with the Buckeyes.

For Stroud, it would be a bit of a homecoming, growing up nearly 40 miles east of Rose Bowl Stadium in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

“Of course it’s not the games we want to be in or the games we want to play for, but it’s definitely an honor to be considered,” Stroud said on Big Ten Network when he was announced as the conference’s quarterback, freshman and offensive player of the year.

“To play back home, that’s been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, playing in the Rose Bowl. If we do that, I feel like I can go out there and just have fun, be home, have a home atmosphere. I think that would be awesome.”

If Iowa wins, it would likely be either the Peach Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl for the Buckeyes with Michigan heading out to the Rose Bowl as the top-seeded Big Ten team. Even if chaos reigns on college football Saturday — with Houston beating Cincinnati in the AAC Championship, Baylor beating Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship and Iowa earning a Big Ten title against Michigan — it seems like Ohio State would still fall behind Baylor as a two-loss conference champion or even Notre Dame, which now has the stability at the head coaching position with the promotion of defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Marcus Freeman after Brian Kelly left for LSU.

Long story short, Ohio State’s path to the Playoff is extremely slim, and something that’s out of its control.

So what can the Buckeyes do now?

Really, all they can do is wait, something they are not used to doing.

But to Wilson, it’s something Ohio State did to itself.

“We didn’t handle business,” Wilson said. “If you don’t handle business, you don’t get rewarded.”